The Montreal Gig: One Late Night Later...

Last night, at 11:30pm, Matt Larsen, Greg Inda and his lovely girlfriend, Shawna (I bet I mispelled that) met me at The Playground to shoot pictures and footage for the presentation video that I'm prepping for this audition. The 10pm show ran a little late and the guys from that show were gracious about turning the space over to us. (A shout out to the lads of "Gung Hoes".)

Matt was efficient about camera setup and Greg and Shawna ran lights for the bits that we put together. It was a relatively easy shoot. First we shot the introduction of the Master of Ceremonies character, which I named Fletus T. Flywheel (a loving nod to Groucho). It was fun to be back in my tux and tails and gallivanting around on the stage. The great thing about working with Matt and Greg is that they were on board 100% to shoot what I wanted, with helpful suggestions that I think really enhanced the project. And it was a light, easy shoot. If I fucked up a shot, I would just reset and we would go at it again. After we got a take that we liked, we did 3 or 4 more good takes to give Matt plenty to work with, when he edits the video.

I also handed him a comprehensive shot list from the two DVDs of the Vaudeville show, listing everything that I wanted him to pull, either as a potential clip for the video or as a short visual joke to enhance the musical montage section of the audition video. I think he was a little intimidated when he saw it, but then, when he saw that it was actually not that bad, I think he relaxed a little bit.

After Matt wrapped the film shoot section, around 12:45am, Matt broke his stuff down and took off, while Greg and Shawna set up to take the headshots. Greg has a comprehensive lighting rig. So many instruments. So many lights of so many different varieties. He took measurements of the light and paced off distances. And set a stool for me and then began taking pictures.

Greg was efficient and concise with his directions. "Lean forward. Raise your chin. Widen your eyes. Smile like the devil." And once he found a look that he liked, we took tons and tons of pictures. Over 250+ of them, in a few hours. In street clothes. In the tux. With the top hat. Without the top hat. With cigar. Without cigar. And then several reels of experimental stuff like extreme reaches and interesting physical stuff.

We finally ended the session around 3:30 in the morning.

I feel wiped out, today. I was so tired, this morning, that I overlept. Luckily Joe woke me up and got me going.

I am happy to report, though, that we got some excellent footage and some top-notch pictures, last night. I saw the ones that Greg was going to do some processing on and prep for submission. They're pretty spectacular. They really showcase the character (both the one that I'm playing and the one that this show is looking to hire.) I'll post them here in the blog once I get them. I'll post Matt's video, when it's done, too.

After that, I upload all of my materials to their website and it's in the French-Canadians hands, at that point.

Merci,
Mr.B